Froggy’s First Kiss

Yesterday I got Reese some Valentine’s Day themed books from my stash of books I had in my classroom.  One was Froggy’s First Kiss, which I’ve read many, many times to my students over the years.  But I haven’t read it since I became a mommy and it made me cry when I read it today! 

If you’re not familiar with the book, basically Froggy is infatuated with the new girl in his class, Frogilina.  He makes Valentine’s Day cards at school and on one special card he writes, “I love you”.  You think he’s going to give the special card to Frogilina, but he ends up giving it to his mom.  It’s a cute story.

Reese was so excited about the new books that he insisted on taking them with him when I changed his diaper.  What is it with males and their need for bathroom reading material?

His favorite part of the Froggy book is when it says Froggy flopped away, and repeats “flop, flop, flop” several times.   He made me leave the book  in his bed when he went to sleep tonight, and I kept hearing him say, “flop, flop, flop” after I left the room.

He also had his cell phone in bed and was making a few phone calls after I left the room.  I wonder if he was calling Frogilina?  Nah, I prefer to think he was calling me.

Wordless Wednesday

2,037 Pounds

Our dining room is a little crowded right now. 

42 boxes.  48.5 pounds each.  I only managed to carry in 5 boxes.  George and my dad carried in the rest. 

While it was snowing. 

Yikes, I think I owe them!

21 Months

My little monkey turned 21 months old last week.  I can’t believe he’s getting so big!  This is such a fun age and he’s doing so many things that I want to remember forever.

He likes to shake his head no.  If he says the word, it’s not just one “no”, it’s “Nonononononono!”

He’s picking up sign language pretty quickly now.  He knows the signs for dad, mom, all finished, eat, again, milk, thank you, sorry, and poop.  George taught him the last one, as well as a secret sign that he made up.

Reese is learning lots of new words too.  He just started saying “thank you” and today he looked at our cat and said, “Dottie!”.

Reese loves to cook.  He got a play kitchen for Christmas and spends much of his day stirring,  pouring, and seasoning his imaginary creations.  Yesterday he got into one of our kitchen cabinets and he’s been carrying a real mixer and juicer around the house for 2 days now. 

My big boy is finally going to sleep on his own and is sleeping through the night!

Reese got a Dapper Dan for Christmas and they are best friends.  He sleeps with him, takes him in the car with us, and loves to play a hide and seek game with him.

When he wants me to play with him, Reese points to the exact spot on the floor where he wants me to sit.  If I get tired of playing and try to lay down and rest, he runs right over and tries to pull me up. 

Each night before bed, Reese hides behind his curtains and plays hide and seek.

Reese is definitely a fun-loving little guy.  We sure do love him!

Mmmm

 nap time = snack time

MIA

I’ve been MIA for a while due to a minor computer issue.  I balanced the laptop on the arm of the couch one day so I could get up and let Rudy out.  When I stood up, I accidentally knocked the computer off.  When it fell, the connector that plugs the battery pack into the computer broke.  We drove all over town looking for a replacement piece, only to find out at the 4th store we visited that it has to be purchased from the company and sent via snail mail.  I won’t be making the mistake of putting the computer on the arm of the couch again- it was quite difficult to live without email, blogs, and Facebook for so long!

It was a nice day today, with temps in the 70’s, so Reese and I headed to the Arboretum this morning for our first visit of the year.  I absolutely can’t wait for spring!

More Arboretum pics coming soon!

Almost Perfect

Reese and I had a near perfect day yesterday.  It included some of our favorites:

Playtime at Willow Bend.

This was the best picture I could get.  He was too excited to stand still! 

A walk through Anthropologie.  Love Anthropologie!

99 cent sandwiches from Which Wich. 

His first rice crispy treat.

Starbucks peppermint hot chocolate.  (Thank you, thoughtful Father-in-Law!)

Ikea.

This cup of water bought me over an hour of browsing time at Ikea.  Too bad half of it ended up in his lap. 

I would’ve declared it a perfect day, but we didn’t get to see George yesterday.  He’s been in Aggieland at a conference, but will be home tonight just in time to watch some Longhorn football.

January 1, 2010

Happy New Year!  I’m working on a recap of 2009, but I thought I’d document how we spent the first day of 2010.  We didn’t do anything very exciting, but it was a great day.

We had lots of play time:

A few time outs (Yes, he is smiling during time out):

We ate our traditional New Year’s Day foods – black-eyed pea salsa and Wing Stop fries:

 

Reese napped for over 2 1/2 hours and we finally had to wake him:

While Reese napped, we spent a few hours with Mad Men (it is excellent, by the way):

Reese helped with some housework after his nap: 

And since George was on vacation today, we watched 90210 while we ate dinner.  Reese was happy to hear his favorite song:

Hope you had a great start to 2010!

And It Only Took 20 Months

Reese has slept through the night the past 7 nights.  I think it’s finally safe to say that he’s learned to sleep through the night!  

This is a HUGE answer to prayers.  HUGE!

Now if we could only get Rudy to sleep through the night…

Why Santa Won’t Visit the Deines Home

Brace yourselves for what I’m about to say.  Are you ready?  George and I have decided not to do the whole Santa Claus thing with Reese. 

I recently saw a post on a message board from a woman who didn’t want to do Santa, because she felt she was lying to her children.  People were downright outraged that this woman would even consider the idea of leaving Santa Claus out of her family’s Christmas traditions.  They urged her to allow her children to experience the “magic” of Christmas and said that Santa is not really a lie “per se”.

In our American culture, most children spend more time thinking about Santa and the gifts he’s going to bring than they do about the real reason we celebrate Christmas.  I’ll be the first to admit that when I was a child, I thought Christmas was synonymous with Santa.  (And Easter with the Easter Bunny.  But that’s another post for another season!)  I might have been able to tell you that Christmas was a celebration of the birth of Jesus, but I wouldn’t have been able to elaborate.

We don’t want Reese to be excited about a non-existant fat man in a red suit.  We want him to grow to understand and treasure the incarnation. 

We’ve received a lot of flack about our Santa decision, but we’re also in good company.  John Piper and his wife Noel chose not to include Santa Claus in their family Christmas celebrations.  Noel Piper wrote a book called Treasuring God in Our Traditions, in which she points out that Santa can be confusing for children, because he shares some similar attributes with God.

• He’s omniscient – he sees everything you do.
• He rewards you if you’re good.
• He’s omnipresent – at least, he can be everywhere in one night.
• He gives you good gifts.
• He’s the most famous “old man in the sky” figure.

Piper also points out that fairy tales are fun, but parents don’t expect their children to believe them.  Yet most parents do expect and encourage their children to believe in Santa – at least for several years.

Please understand that I’m not saying you can’t do Santa and also celebrate the birth of Jesus at Christmastime.  I’m sure some families are able to pretend that Santa visits their home and also maintain the focus on Christ.  We are just choosing a more non-traditional path (Though it’s really the traditional path when you think about it!) for our family. 

Merry Christmas to you, whether Santa visits your home or not!

“‘Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel (which means God with us).”  Matthew 1:23